San Diego  Former San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor is scheduled to appear in federal court Thursday morning to face a single money laundering charge, court records show.

Details of the charge against O’Connor, 66, could not be determined Wednesday. Her name and the charge she is facing appear on U.S. Magistrate Judge David Bartick’s public calendar.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the investigation or the case late Wednesday.

“Ms. O’Connor’s case is set on calendar for arraignment, and the matter is set for disposition,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip Halpern, the office’s chief of major frauds and special prosecutions section.

The money-laundering charge O’Connor faces involves engaging in a monetary transaction of $10,000 or more, where the money being laundered comes from some kind of unlawful or criminal activity.

The charges can carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, but it is unlikely that O’Connor will receive the maximum sentence.

The court information indicates the case is being resolved before a federal grand jury indicts her. Often in these types of cases, both sides have agreed on a sentence or a range of possible punishments.

A woman who answered a cellphone listed for O’Connor abruptly hung up when U-T San Diego called. Subsequent calls went to voice mail, and no one responded to messages left there.

O’Connor, a Democrat, served two terms as mayor from 1986 to 1992. She was the city’s first female mayor, known for her populist touch and appeal.

Her rise to power was impressive, from a job as a physical education teacher at a Catholic girls school to being elected to the City Council and serving from 1971 to 1979. She also served on the San Diego Unified Port District from 1980 to 1985.

In 1977, she married Robert O. Peterson, founder of the Jack-In-The-Box restaurant chain and later Southern California First National Bank Corp., which eventually became part of the Union Bank empire. The wealthy Peterson was also a major San Diego philanthropist.

After leaving the mayor’s office, O’Connor kept a low profile. Peterson died in 1994 at his Point Loma home. The couple had no children.

O’Connor authored a few essays for the opinion pages of The San Diego Union-Tribune between 2000 and 2005, but that was about the extent of her public pronouncements.

Her real estate investments did get attention recently, however.

In 2005, she sold the luxury Heritage House resort in Mendocino County for $19.5 million. She had purchased the historic inn that has stunning views of the rugged coast in 1998.

But the aftermath of the sale has been troubled. O’Connor and her twin sister, Mavourneen O’Connor, have sued the German bank that provided financing for the buyers for fraud.

County records show that in September 2010 Maureen O’Connor sold a home she owned on Dunemere Drive in La Jolla for $2.5 million. The home is just north of the home now owned by former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

The sale was a short sale, and soon after the purchase the county reassessed the property at a $4.5 million value.